Free Web NovelChapter 168: Chapter 168: If You Don’t Give It to Me, I’ll Go to the Press
Mrs. Vaughn had completely lost her appetite. All she wanted was to get rid of this woman as quickly as possible.
"What is it you want? Just say it."
Chloe King hadn’t expected her to be so blunt, skipping even the most basic pleasantries.
She had planned on being polite, but since Mrs. Vaughn was forcing her to get straight to the point, she would.
"I know you’re a busy woman. Since you want me to be direct, I won’t waste any more of your time."
"My sister, Cecelia Archer, and Damien have been together for a while now. A little while ago, Damien even came to our house for dinner. My whole family thinks he’s a great guy. We approve of him and fully support their relationship."
’What a load of crap!’ Mrs. Vaughn wanted to roll her eyes.
Every socialite in Veridia’s upper crust was scrambling to marry into the Vaughn Family. For a family like hers, how could they not think it was great to get their hooks into Damien?
She struggled to suppress her anger and listen to what Chloe King had to say.
"But we didn’t know about Damien’s background back then. We thought he was just an ordinary office worker, so we were happy as long as he and Cecelia were good to each other. We weren’t after anything."
"A little while ago, Damien suddenly told my husband that our old family home had caught the eye of an overseas Chinese who had returned from abroad. He said the feng shui of our place was excellent and offered to buy it at a high price, so we sold it. We honestly didn’t know it was Damien who bought it with his own money."
’So she’s here about the house.’ It figured. She wouldn’t be here unless she wanted something.
Twenty million. For a family like theirs, that was more money than they could earn in two lifetimes. Now that Mrs. Vaughn wanted it back, of course, their whole family was scared and on edge.
"So? What is it you’re trying to say?"
"Auntie, it’s like this..."
"Don’t call me Auntie. Excuse me, but how old are you?"
Chloe King was only two years older than Cecelia Archer, just twenty-five. But she was born slightly chubby and had average looks.
Even though she had made a special effort to dress up today, all it amounted to was powdering her face a little whiter, drawing her eyebrows a little darker, and painting her lips a little redder. She still looked exactly the same, not a bit younger.
To be frank, sitting across from a woman as well-maintained as Mrs. Vaughn, she really had no business calling her "Auntie."
Chloe King was taken aback, but for the sake of the money, she swallowed her pride.
"What I mean to say is, Cecelia has been with Damien for so long, and... what’s done is done. We’re the woman in this situation, after all... If you don’t approve of Cecelia and want them to break up, we understand. For a family like ours, we know our place... But surely you should offer some compensation for her wasted time?"
’Compensation for her wasted time?’ Mrs. Vaughn was so amused she almost laughed.
"So you’re here today to ask me for money? Just because Cecelia is a woman, you think Damien took advantage of her, and now we have to pay you compensation?"
"Isn’t that how it works?" Chloe King retorted, looking at Mrs. Vaughn’s sarcastic smile with an air of self-righteousness.
"Are you saying you don’t want to pay? A prominent family like yours wouldn’t stoop to bullying people, would you?"
Mrs. Vaughn’s smile grew wider. "I’m sorry, what was your name again?"
"My name is Chloe King."
"Chloe King, I don’t know if Cecelia gave you our address or if you dug it up yourself. Either way, you have hands, feet, and a mouth—you can go and do a little more digging. Find out who really got the better end of the deal during the time Cecelia was with Damien. She’s just a piece of damaged goods with a loose lifestyle who had a child out of wedlock. By your logic, you should be demanding even more compensation from that bastard’s father. You should have been rich long ago. Why are you only coming after our Damien?"
Chloe King was speechless.
"It’s not that we won’t pay. People need to have some decency, to know when enough is enough. In the time Cecelia was with Damien, she received plenty of gifts, big and small, and he never stopped giving her pocket money. Forget compensation for wasted time—the amount he’s spent on her would be enough for your family to pay the bride price for ten wives, wouldn’t it?"
Cecelia had received a lot of gifts and pocket money? She didn’t know anything about that!
Chloe King immediately started cursing Cecelia in her head.
’She was raking it in all this time but still came crying poor to her brother-in-law! The nerve!’
Normally, anyone with a shred of dignity would have backed down after hearing that, but Chloe King was not a normal person.
A twenty-million-dollar house! If she just let it go, she’d never come across such a windfall again in her life!
"It’s not about being greedy; it’s about the principle of the thing. Damien gave us the house of his own free will. It was a gift during his relationship with Cecelia. Who’s ever heard of taking back a gift you’ve already given?"
How ridiculous. The woman’s skin was impossibly thick. Mrs. Vaughn couldn’t be bothered to argue with her anymore.
"Greed knows no bounds. Let’s stop beating around the bush. I’ll give it to you straight. What if I insist on taking that gift back?"
"Then you’re being incredibly stingy!"
At this point, Chloe King was also simmering with rage.
Either way, this marriage was clearly never going to happen, so she wasn’t afraid of offending Mrs. Vaughn anymore.
"I’ve already had people look into it. The Vaughn Group is one of the biggest corporations in Veridia, worth who knows how many hundreds of billions. Never mind a measly twenty million—even two hundred million is nothing to your family. And you still want it back? That’s just cheap!"
The poor have their own logic: whoever is poorer is in the right.
Unfortunately for her, Mrs. Vaughn wasn’t buying it.
"The Vaughn Group’s money didn’t just fall from the sky. Are you saying the money we worked hard to earn should just be handed over to you as charity? If everyone followed your logic, how would the Vaughn Group survive?"
"Well, not every woman at the Vaughn Group has slept with Damien. If you insist on taking it back, then my only choice is to go to the papers. ’Vaughn Group bullies the common folk, sleeps with women and takes no responsibility, then demands their gifts back.’ We’ll see who loses face then!"
Mrs. Vaughn’s eyebrows shot up again.
’Is this woman threatening me?’
In all her years, this was the first time anyone had ever threatened her.
’Go to the papers? How dare she even think of it!’
"Was that your idea, or did Cecelia put you up to it? Wasn’t she the one who kept going on about her dignity? Going to the papers? Is she not afraid of being shamed now?"
Chloe King’s tone softened a little.
"She’s a single woman trying to make a living with a child. It’s not easy. When things get to this point, who has time to worry about face? Auntie, let’s not say anything more. Just take pity on her and don’t ask for it back. We can part on good terms and never bother you again, how about it?"
If Mrs. Vaughn were to agree, wouldn’t that mean she’d been successfully threatened by a common shrew? That would be the joke of the century.
"Ms. King, show our guest out. Remember this face, blacklist her. And from now on, don’t let any more riffraff in."
"Go to the papers? Be my guest. I’ll be waiting."
"You—!"
Ms. King hadn’t expected Chloe King to be so bold, haggling with the madam the moment she walked in and letting the conversation get so hostile. She quickly moved to escort her out.
But Chloe King refused to budge.
"I’ve never seen such a stingy rich lady! On TV, when the wealthy mother disapproves of her son’s marriage, she just hands the girl a check! If you think twenty million is too much, then fine, I won’t ask for that much. Let’s learn from TV—just give me five million! Once I get the check, you won’t have to throw me out. I’ll never come back!"
